Quote from: K-Dog on May 27, 2026, 02:29 PM The AI buildout results from investor storytelling and rentier incentives, not actual verified necessity.

Pretty much ever since the invention of the Wheel, the story of Homo Saps has been about inventing things that would make their lives easier and at first glance improve the way they lived, but none of them were truly necessary for living.  All of them, even the wheel have negative conssequences and/or reqired other things to make them really useful.  Wheels needed Roads which had to be built and maintained, which required people doing those jobs rather than hunting or farming.  The society grows in numbers and complexity and becomes dependent on the roads to function.  What once wasn't necessary for living now has become so; this is the principle of irreversibility which comes along with complexity in the growth of a civilization.

Combining this with the concept of Private Ownership is what allows some people to become outrageously rich. it has nothing to do with hard work.  Way back when of course you couldn't Patent a wheel and you didn't need a big factory, anybody could make a simple one.  Eventually of course it was improved on, Wheelwrights became an occupation, factories for making wheels with metal and rubber arrived and chemical plants that made synthetic rubber, etc etc etc.  More complexity, ownership of the means of production again makes a tiny minority wealthy because the society has become dependent on these high tech wheels with synthetic polymer tires which are made from Oil, also "owned" by whoever was powerful enough to take control of the land the oil was under.

AI is no different, it's not yet necessary, but is quickly becoming so.  Will it really improve the human condition?  I doubt it, but making it necessary will definitely make whoever has control over it extremely wealthy.  Or really just wealthier, since it's the same people who own everything else who have the money to invest in building Data Centers.

For the individual, the less dependent you are on all these accessories to living, the freer you are.  That is why there are still people like Eustace Conway around and groups like the Amish.  They give up the conveniences of techno living in favor of having more freedom.  If everyone was like this, capitalism wouldn't succeed.  Unfortunately, most people are willing to trade their freedom and independence for toaster ovens and smart TVs.

RE